"RYL" 2008 Obituary

RYLAARSDAM o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2008-05-28 published
HEYKOOP,
Jentje "
Jennie"
(KUIPER)
Peacefully at Clinton Public Hospital surrounded by her family
on Monday, May 26, 2008 Mrs. Jentje "Jennie"
(KUIPER)
HEYKOOP
of Goderich in her 72nd year. Beloved wife of the late Nicolaas
HEYKOOP (1995.) Loving mother and mother-in-law of Mary-Ann and
John NEUTEL of Brucefield; Nick and Wilma
HEYKOOP of Goderich
Shirley and Jake
RYLAARSDAM of Clinton; Irene and Steve
GETTLER
of Fullarton; Nancy and Peter
BEYERSBERGEN of Lucknow; Linda
and Steven
WOLFE of Monkton and Mike and Theresa
HEYKOOP of Holmesville.
Loved and sadly missed by 26 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren.
Dear sister and sister-in-law of Gerrie and John
BOS of Blyth
Piet and Anne
KUIPER of Stratford; Margaret
KUIPER of Clinton
and Theresa
BAKKER of Fenwick. Also survived by many nieces and
nephews. Predeceased by one granddaughter Laura
NEUTEL and by
2 brothers Cornelis "Case"
KUIPER and Henk
KUIPER.
Friends will
be received at the Falconer Funeral Homes Ltd - Bluewater Chapel,
201 Suncoast Drive E., Goderich on Thursday from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m.
Funeral Service will be held at the Trinity Christian Reformed
Church, 321 Suncoast Drive E., Goderich on Friday, May 30, 2008
at 11: 00 a.m. Interment Clinton Cemetery. Donations to the Canadian
Cancer Society or to the Clinton Public Hospital Foundation would
be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.

RYLANCE o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-02-16 published
He used his brush as a weapon to empower the powerless
Once a sincere and ardent Communist, he spent more than 60 years
depicting strikes, refugee camps, political rallies, native reserves
and the lives of ordinary working people
By Ron CSILLAG,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S12
Toronto -- Bill
STAPLETON was more than just another artist with
a social conscience. His documentary art prodded, pushed, shamed,
confounded and made people think (and sometimes squirm). He knew
that not many people wanted to hang socially relevant art like
his over their living-room sofas. It was just as well.
No bucolic landscapes, postcard portraits or pictures of fruit
for him, but fulminations against inequality, oppression, poverty
and the misery of society's dispossessed. These were powerful
reminders of humanity's shortcomings, but also depictions of
the inner strength and dignity of people accustomed to hardship.
In the words of his biographer, Mr.
STAPLETON held "strong, unabashedly
partisan empathy" with the compositions the artist called "Human-scapes."
Largely unsung, though he was once dubbed "the People's Artist,"
Mr. STAPLETON was a committed socialist, activist and a sensitive,
persuasive man "who celebrated the dignity and independence of
the human spirit without irony but not without humour," wrote
C.H. (Marty) Gervais in People In Struggle: The Life and Art
of Bill Stapleton (Penumbra Press; 1992).
Working in a variety of media - pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolour,
ink wash, oils and acrylics - Mr.
STAPLETON spent more than 60 years
depicting strikes and picket lines where workers squared off
against police and company goons, refugee camps where he heard
tales of torture, women's rallies and the lives of ordinary working
people, and native reservations where he faithfully recorded
disgusting poverty.
"Sketching is honest and immediate," he'd say. "You can't go
back and pretty it up."
His artistic activism wasn't limited to Canada. He journeyed
to Mexico and Central America to document injustice and despair
with nothing more than brushstrokes.
"People have been neglected," Mr.
STAPLETON explained on his
90th birthday, "and that's why I've concentrated on them. Social
art doesn't play enough of a role in art." He saw his role as
almost journalistic, a visual Upton Sinclair whose solidarity
with his subjects only hardened. Mr.
STAPLETON was committed
to using his craft "as a tool and weapon for the benefit of the
powerless and the denunciation of the powerful," Mr. Gervais
found.
Collections of Mr.
STAPLETON's work are housed in the National
Archives of Canada and, ironically for a man who worked so hard
toward peace, in the Canadian War Museum. In 2006, he donated
more than 1,500 canvases and sketches to the Cabbagetown/Regent
Park Community Museum in Toronto.
Born and raised in middle-class comfort in conservative small-town
Ontario, his father was a salesman. A 1933 strike at a local
food plant that was violently suppressed left a deep mark on
him. "The father of a friend of his was beaten in that strike,"
said his daughter, Lynn
TAILOR/TAYLOR. "
That left a very raw impression.
It had a lot to do with influencing his politics later in life."
He planned to become an engineer and, to that end, accepted a
job surveying the Trans-Canada Highway in White River, Ontario,
north of Lake Superior. The Depression was on and he was grateful
for the work. His older brother, Bruce, an illustrator well known
for his war-bonds and Red Cross posters, sent him some paints,
and Mr. STAPLETON sketched the scenery and his fellow workers
- 12 to a tarpaper bunkhouse. With little else to do after long,
gruelling days, he honed his talents, sending pieces to his brother,
who returned them with notations suggesting improvements.
He toiled in the north for 18 months and, with $800 in savings,
headed to New York City where he studied art at the U.S. National
Academy of Design, and where the apolitical 21-year-old first
encountered radical politics. His roommates in a teeming tenement
near Central Park were leftists, and the Big Apple was a magnet
for Marxists. Finding and sketching hobos and street urchins
a stone's throw from the gleaming towers of Wall Street helped
seal his political views.
But New York was as competitive as people had warned. After two
years, he failed to find work as an illustrator and came home.
In Toronto, he worked as a printing salesman, which allowed him
to take evening classes at the Ontario College of Art.
In 1941, Mr.
STAPLETON was emboldened to join the Communist Party
of Canada after Ottawa banned it. This was no act of petulance
but a sincere belief that the party could better achieve the
dreams of social justice than other leftist groups. (He would
quit the party in the early 1950s, dismayed by Stalin's treatment
of artists in the Soviet Union.)
Later in 1941, when the Soviet Union entered the Second World
War, he signed up for service in the Royal Canadian Air Force
and became a pilot. It was around this time he first achieved
recognition. A work of his titled Canadian Airman was included
in a travelling Canadian military exhibit.
Shipped to several bases in England, he ended up with the 418th Royal
Canadian Air Force Squadron in North Yorkshire and trained on
Wellington and Lancaster bombers. But the war ended before he
could fly any missions.
Meantime, he'd sketched.
"It got so I was annoyed if we had to fly because it cut into
my art time," he would recall to his biographer. "I usually rode
a bicycle, with a small canvas bag I could sling over my shoulder,
and I'd pedal off to sketch. Fortunately for me, when the fog
set in - and this was quite often, English weather being what
it is - we'd be grounded for two or three days. It was a great
opportunity, and not having to make art to make money was like
being subsidized."
At war's end, he chose to stay in London to study at the famed
Slade School of Art. Though his own war art portfolio grew, an
appointment as an official war artist eluded him, and he returned
to Canada in time to document two seminal strikes, one by Stelco
workers in Hamilton in 1946, and the other by the Canadian Seaman's
Union in 1949 on the waterfronts of Welland, Toronto and Montreal.
That same year, he married Margaret (Mickey)
RYLANCE.
He'd met
her at an art show, and later explained that he fell for her
despite the fact she believed in God.
With a family to support, he started his own advertising agency
and bought a cottage and a split-level house in Toronto. The
middle-class life was maybe not what communists aspired to, but
"with a wife and three daughters and a couple of mortgages, I
had to have a job - so I went into the advertising business.
It was a living." There was a line he once heard about working
in advertising and loved to quote: "I never told my mother I
was in advertising. She thought I played piano in a brothel."
In 1974, he visited Russia on a cultural exchange. Describing
it as the trip that had the greatest impact on him, Mr.
STAPLETON
reconciled conflicted feelings. "They led the world in science
and were the first to the moon. Freedom of the sexes, women were
ship captains and factory heads. Socialism led the world then,
but was betrayed from within and without. I still believe in
revolution."
He divorced his wife after 23 years of marriage - there were
no hard feelings and the two stayed Friends - and moved to Toronto's
Cabbagetown neighbourhood ("it was here I joined the human race")
where he began depicting ordinary people doing ordinary things.
For about a decade, he was resident artist at three Toronto landmarks:
The Hotel Winchester, the Paramount Tavern, and the Trojan Horse
Coffee House. He'd sit for hours, sketching and painting exiled
Chilean musicians, leftist activists, and the regulars.
"I liked pubs like the Paramount," he recalled. "It attracted
a mostly black clientele. The guys were cocky, exuberant and
graceful; they just had this way of moving and expressing themselves.
And their music - wow! The mixed clientele provided a real slice
of life - fights, shootings, stabbings and four police vans on
a Saturday night."
As for his style, it had a relaxed structure but his lines were
"direct and bold, drawn with rock-steady hand and a sharp eye,"
noted Carol
MOORE-
EDE,
Mr.STAPLETON's friend and curator. "He
painted in startlingly vibrant colours and bold strokes, as forthright
in his technique as he was in his social convictions."
One reviewer lauded his oeuvre as being in the tradition of Edgar
Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
His pace quickened in his sixties and seventies. He journeyed
to Nicaragua in 1982 to sketch the suffering and despair caused
by the country's political upheaval. In 1984, he went to Mexico
to document the scores of Guatemalan refugees flooding the border
in a struggle for safety and food. The following year, he was
part of a delegation that travelled to Spain to seek recognition
for the 1,239 Canadians of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion (the
"Mac-Paps") who fought the fascists in the Spanish Civil War.
And in 1989, he joined the Innu of Sheshatshit, Labrador, to
protest low-level test flights of North Atlantic Treaty Organization
fighter jets and bombers over traditional native hunting grounds.
An exhibit was mounted in Toronto.
He belonged to Veterans Against Nuclear Arms, and in the early
1980s, helped mobilize artists in a national disarmament movement,
Arts for Peace, chaired by novelist Margaret Laurence and numbering
the likes of Pierre Berton, Norman Jewison, Margaret Atwood and
Karen Kain.
In his later years, he volunteered for ArtHeart, a community-based
effort that provides free access to studio space, instruction,
and art supplies. He'd give away quick sketches to children.
Just last December, he received the Ontario Federation of Labour's
first Lifetime Cultural Achievement Award. His age prevented
his attendance but he received a standing ovation nonetheless.
Asked by his biographer whether, at 75, he still had "the fire"
in him, Mr.
STAPLETON reflected, "Sure, I still get passionate
about causes, about inequity and inequality, about what's wrong
with our society, with the environment and with the economic
system… Look, you have to have anger, passion, indignation, love,
tenderness - the whole gamut of human emotion - if you're going
to be a real artist. Injustice is always with us, and one of
the jobs of responsible artists is to respond to it. Art becomes
an essential voice in all the chaos of our times: A tool for
bearing witness, and a weapon for effecting change."
He never made a living at art, he admitted, "but I lived through
it."
William Johnson
STAPLETON was born in Stratford, Ontario on January 24,
1916. He died in Bracebridge, Ontario on February 5, 2008. He
was 92. He is survived by daughters Lynn
TAILOR/TAYLOR,
JudithSTAPLETON
and Sharon
SHERMAN. He also leaves his former wife, Mickey, and
five grandchildren.
An exhibition of Mr.
STAPLETON's selected works, is on display
at Riverdale Farm, 201 Winchester Street, Toronto, Saturdays from
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. until March 23.

RYLAND o@ca.on.middlesex_county.london.london_free_press 2008-04-25 published
WILLSON,
Shirley (née
RYLAND)
84, of Saint Thomas, passed away at the Saint Thomas-Elgin General
Hospital on Thursday, April 24, 2008. Wife of the late Bartley E.
WILSON (1975.) Mother of Norma
COTTRELL of Paris, Elsie
HUTCHINGS
and her husband Lynn of Southwold, Kathleen
HOULE and her husband
Denis of Grand Prairie, Alberta, and the late Nancy
WILLSON.
Mother-in-law of Wayne Cottrell of London. Sister of Marie
McQUEEN
of Sarnia, Sheila
HILL and her husband David of Windsor, and
the late Ronald
RYLAND, late June
RYLAND and late Ivan
RYLAND
(his wife Anne of Saint Thomas). Also survived by numerous grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Born in Ilderton, Ontario,
April 15, 1924, she was the daughter of the late George and Clarine
(FORD)
RYLAND.
Shirley was a member of Iona Christian Fellowship
Church, a former member of the Iona Women's Institute and a former
associate member of Lord Elgin Branch #41, Royal Canadian Legion,
Saint Thomas. A public memorial service to celebrate Shirley's
life will be held at the Iona Christian Fellowship Church on
Sunday, April 27th at 2: 00 p.m. Relatives and Friends will be
received by the family one hour prior. If so desired, memorial
donations to the charity of your choice will be appreciated.
Arrangements entrusted to the Sifton Funeral Home, 118 Wellington
Street, Saint Thomas.

RYLAND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-01-23 published
TOVEY,
JohnEdward
Peacefully at his residence in London, Ontario on Sunday, January 20,
2008 in his 83rd year. Beloved husband of Edith and beloved father
of Mark. Brother of Beatrice (and the late Gordon)
RYLAND of
Winnipeg, Robert and Joan
TOVEY of Vancouver, and the late James
and Patricia
TOVEY.
Uncle of Donna and Alan, Winnifred and Michael,
and Miro. Ted was born and raised in Darlingford and Winnipeg,
Manitoba. He earned his B.A. at the University of Manitoba in
1953. At the University of Winnipeg he studied law and was called
to the bar in 1954. He practiced briefly in Toronto with Lewis
and Osler and spent most of his career practicing in London,
Ontario. Visitation will be held on Thursday, January 24 from
2-4 and 7-9 p.m. at the James A. Harris Funeral Home, 220 Saint_James
St. at Richmond, London. Funeral arrangements private. Interment
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions
to CurePSP (The Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy),
Executive Plaza III, 906-11350 McCormick Road, Hunt Valley,
Maryland 21031, U.S.A., or the charity of your choice, would
be gratefully acknowledged. On-line condolences may be sent privately
through www.HarrisFuneralHome.ca.

RYLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-02-18 published
DENOVAN,
David McClintock
David and his dear wife, Nancy St. Clair Ryley
DENOVAN, died
on November 20, 2007 on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.
David was the
son of Samuel Parker
DENOVAN and Laura
McCLINTOCK
and the brother-in-law of George Moore
RYLEY, all pre-deceased.
He and Nancy were dearly loved and will be sadly missed by their
niece Norah
RYLEY of Toronto, nephew Peter
RYLEY and his wife
Denise HUPÉ of Ottawa, sister-in-law Jessica
RYLEY of Toronto
and many close Friends. Born on February 13, 1944, David grew
up in Toronto and studied Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
He began his career as a production film editor with Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation television in Toronto in 1967. His editing
credits included popular series such as Man Alive and The Nature
of Things as well as many award-winning dramas and documentaries.
His love of film extended to his personal life where he was an
avid collector and home-theatre buff with a special interest
in the science fiction genre. Later in life, he and his wife
moved to rural western Canada where he became involved in environmental
concerns and efforts to protect wilderness areas while also indulging
his passion for skiing and hiking. Cremation has taken place
and will be followed later by burial and commemorative gatherings.
Memorial donations to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society,
the David Suzuki Foundation or the Sierra Legal Defence Fund
would be greatly appreciated.

RYLEY o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-02-18 published
DENOVAN,
NancySt.Clair (née
RYLEY)
Nancy and her dear husband, David McClintock
DENOVAN, died on
November 20, 2007 on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia Nancy
was the daughter of Alfred St. Clair
RYLEY and Norah Frances
MOORE and the sister of George Moore
RYLEY, all predeceased.
She and David were dearly loved and will be sadly missed by their
niece Norah
RYLEY of Toronto, nephew Peter
RYLEY and his wife
Denise HUPÉ of Ottawa, sister-in-law Jessica
RYLEY of Toronto
and many close Friends. Nancy was born on March 14, 1932, grew
up in Montreal, did undergraduate studies at McGill and post-graduate
work at the University of Toronto. Her subsequent career as a
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television producer, director
and writer was highlighted by her series of documentaries about
Canadian artists, musicians and naturalists. Her choice of subjects
reflected an abiding sense of a soul connection with nature.
Her passion for Canadian art as a representation of that soul
was captured particularly in her films about Emily Carr and Lawren
Harris which received both national and international awards
and continue to be shown in museums and art galleries. Later
in life, Nancy and her husband left Toronto to establish their
own connection with nature in rural western Canada. The proximity
to the wilderness and her own garden sanctuary on Salt Spring
Island gave her great joy. Her 1998 book, The Forsaken Garden,
is based on her experience living with environmental illness
and explores the deep psychological and spiritual relationship
between the health of our bodies and souls and the health of
the planet. To her, "the garden is a metaphor for the soul, a
place where the most important thing is to live and grow; to
return to our garden is to consciously return to a place of fullness
and naturalness of being that the modern world in its frenzied
pace has threatened to obliterate." Cremation has taken place
and will be followed later by burial and commemorative gatherings.
Memorial donations to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society,
the David Suzuki Foundation or the Sierra Legal Defence Fund
would be greatly appreciated.

RYLOTT o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2008-05-05 published
HAGERMAN,
LoisIrene (née
RYLOTT)
The family of Lois
HAGERMAN sadly announces her passing at Georgetown
Hospital, on May 3, 2008, in her 89th year. Predeceased by her
husband Bertram "Bert". Beloved mother of Michael (Susan), Marty,
Ken and Perry. Loving Nana of Sarah, Katherine, Steve (Holly),
Louis, Henry and Max. Great-grandmother of Andrew and Marissa.
Lois is survived by her brother Garfield
RYLOTT. Dear friend
of Marilyn
HAGERMAN.
Friends will be received at the Neweduk
Funeral Home "Mississauga Chapel" 1981 Dundas St. W., (1 block
east of Erin Mills Pkwy) from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesday May 7, 2008.
A Funeral Service will be held in the Chapel on Thursday May 8,
2008 at 10 a.m. Interment at Riverside Cemetery, Toronto. In
lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Heart and Stroke
Foundation.
Neweduk Funeral Home 905-828-8000. Online condolences at www.neweduk.com